151. The Family's Crisis (4)
Splash!
A powerful jet of water slammed into her face, gradually rousing Elenoa from unconsciousness.
"Ugh…."
She grimaced, writhing slightly before slowly turning her head. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Where… is this? A temple?"
It wasn't an ordinary temple. Rows of long pews stretched out inside, enough to seat dozens of worshippers. Dust blanketed the dilapidated interior, and patches of decay suggested it had long been abandoned.
"Miss, you coming around?"
A ragged man holding a bucket in one hand chuckled as he spoke to Elenoa. His face was grimy, unwashed for days, and his worn pants and sleeveless shirt reeked of sour sweat and yellowed stains. He had the look of a typical slum thug, and Elenoa, still disoriented, couldn't hide her bewilderment.
"……?"
As her senses sharpened, she tried to move and assess her situation.
"Ah…."
She realized her wrists were shackled, her arms chained and suspended in midair. Looking up dazedly, she followed the chains to where they were bolted firmly to a statue of Vesta. The shock of leaning against a symbol of the goddess lasted only a moment before memories of what happened before she blacked out flooded back. Elenoa's face hardened.
'Reno…. What about Reno and Martan?'
She recalled the two guards who had desperately protected her amid the late-night assassins, their bodies covered in wounds. She whipped her head around frantically, but they were nowhere in sight.
"Where are the two knights who were with me?"
"Beats me."
The thug who had doused her shrugged with a smirk at her urgent question.
"……."
"Hey, don't glare like that. We were just told to hang out here and wake you up when the time came. That's it. We don't know anything else. Asking won't get you answers."
"Where is this place?"
"Lindebalt."
"Lindebalt…?"
"Huh? You know this spot?"
"I thought the Lindebalt Barony fell two years ago…."
"Oh?"
The thug eyed her with surprise at her reaction. Noble daughters typically learned basic history and etiquette at Aiter Royal School to build their refinement. Women delving into politics—like Queen Consort Dianne or Terezia—were rare exceptions. Few noblewomen paid much attention to national affairs, but Elenoa, as a temple priestess and daughter of a ducal house, had received extensive education to protect herself from various threats, including Ashton's schemes. Lindebalt Barony was especially infamous: two years prior, the temple had dispatched holy knights and priests to arrest and behead the baron and his family for leading a cult of heretics. As a priestess who had harbored deep doubts about that incident, Elenoa could never forget the name.
'Lindebalt Barony…. But how the hell did they bring me all the way here?'
Elenoa figured she couldn't have been out for more than a day. Even by carriage, the journey from Fernin would've taken five days. How had they covered such an absurd distance in half a day to a day? And why drag her to this forsaken temple in Lindebalt? Frustration gnawed at her.
"Oh, perfect timing. I was just about to report you'd woken up, and here you stroll in."
"……?"
Bang!
Elenoa followed the thug's gaze to the temple entrance. A man kicked open the dilapidated wooden door—its hinges long broken—and grinned as he spotted Elenoa chained to the central Vesta statue.
"……!"
Elenoa's face stiffened upon recognizing the intruder.
"Long time no see."
"…Brother Ashton."
"Don't call me brother. I've never once seen you as my sister."
Ashton looked much improved from the withered mummy he'd become after the gumiho possessing Erin drained his mana, but his gaunt face and frail body showed he hadn't fully recovered.
"Why did you kidnap me?"
"Because Father abandoned me."
"You're the one who disappointed Father."
"I said don't call me brother!"
Ashton exploded at her like he had some anger management issue, raising his voice.
"I disappointed you? Ha! What a joke! I was just doing my duty as the ducal heir! Father was tearing his hair out over the lack of funds to revive the holy sword, so I secured the money to help him! Where in that did I disappoint him?!"
"Can't you see that's the problem itself?! The funds you 'secured' were taxes paid with the blood and sweat of this kingdom's people! How could you steal from them?!"
"It's only natural for commoners to offer money to nobles! They're flatheads, and I was the vice duke of the Armitas Ducal House—the kingdom's second most powerful family!"
No good. Wrong. He wouldn't listen. Ashton's ingrained elitism was rooted too deeply to uproot. What had gone wrong? Raised in the same house with the same education, why had Ashton twisted so far from Alex and Elenoa? As the eldest son and designated heir, he'd received even more privileges and attention—never once had Alex or Elenoa been favored over him. So why had he grown into such a foolish man? Why had he resorted to something as extreme as kidnapping her? Elenoa couldn't comprehend it.
"And trying to kill that commoner? Same thing! What threat was some nobody? Plus, that wench stole every drop of mana from my body with her devilish tricks! How could Father abandon me after that, defend her, and even put that bastard Alex in my place?!"
Even after kidnapping Erin and brutally assaulting her frail form to crush the gap in status and strength, Ashton felt no remorse—he saw it as the natural order. His irrational ideology held no logic, no matter how you searched. Stunned speechless by the absurdity, Elenoa still tried one last time to reason with him.
"It's not too late. Release me now and beg Father's forgiveness. This won't end well for me, you, or Father."
"Hmph. Too late for that."
"What…?"
"I've already commissioned the informant guild I dealt with before. The embezzlement we ducal faction nobles plotted—including me—will leak to the royalist nobles."
"What do you—"
"And not just me. I've woven in the 'fact' that Father and Alex were in on it too."
"That's… what kind of nonsense is that?!"
Straining against her suspended chains, Elenoa thrashed desperately to get closer to him.
"A parent's job is to take responsibility for their child's sins. Isn't it only right Father shares mine too?"
Seeing his mocking sneer, Elenoa finally abandoned persuasion and seethed with rage.
"How… how could you do this to Father?!"
"How could I? Father shouldn't have done it to me! This is my revenge on the family! Perish for discarding me! Hahaha!"
Ashton burst into triumphant laughter at her stricken face.
"How could you… to Father…."
Elenoa's expression shifted from shock to fury, then to cold resolve.
"…Release me."
Any trace of respect for Ashton was gone from her face. She dropped the "brother" and formal speech, but he didn't care.
"Heh, why would I?"
She knew it was futile, but she had to say it. Her situation was that desperate, with no other options.
"Well, I do plan to send you back to Father. Not right now, though."
"…What?"
Dozens of men filed into the temple, and her confusion hardened into dread as she failed to grasp his meaning.
"Heh heh heh."
"She's a real looker."
"Been too long since I had a woman."
"No way…."
As horrifying possibilities dawned on her, a familiar face pushed through the crowd, twisting her features in contempt.
"Priest Bark…."
Recognizing Bishop Harkan's son, Lieutenant Priest Bark, a chill spread through Elenoa, and she shrank back in terror.
"Heh, heh heh…. E-Elenoa…. F-Finally, you're mine…."
Unlike his father Harkan's outwardly benevolent appearance, Bark was a hulking toad of a man: massive gut sagging and folding over itself, sweat pouring from him even at rest. No model son of a bishop, but a greedy frog. His eyes raked over her shackled form, and his pants tented visibly.
"Ugh…."
"From now on, you'll service all twenty men in this temple. Then, in about half a year, waddle back to Father and Alex with a swollen belly and no clue whose seed it is. Won't that be fun?"
"No…."
"It's your first time, so I'll lend a hand."
Ashton pulled a potion from his pocket, uncorked it, and forced her jaw open, shoving the vial into her mouth.
"Mmph?! Mmmph?!"
Liquid flooded her mouth before she could resist, and she swallowed the unknown potion gulp after gulp.
"Pwah! What the hell did you make me drink—?! Ack?!"
"An aphrodisiac I bought for a pretty penny from a brothel. Working fast, huh?"
"Ha… haaah…."
Heat surged through her body, her stomach throbbing with an alien sensation she'd never felt. Elenoa began trembling and twitching.
"Human… scum…!"
Her face burned with humiliation and rage as she glared, but Ashton only laughed gleefully at her reaction. Ignoring her venom, he placed a hand on her priestess robe's chest, gripped the fabric, and tore it viciously.
Rip!
"Kyaa!"
The robe shredded, her bra ripping away crudely. Her breasts spilled out, exposed pathetically and defenselessly.
"Ugh!"
She flailed to cover herself, but her shackled hands dangled uselessly overhead.
"There! Feast's served! Dig in, boys!"
He raised his arms in a grand welcoming gesture, and the starved men—leering like dogs in heat—advanced on Elenoa, drooling.
"Stay… away…."
"Heh heh heh!"
"No…."
"Skin's so smooth."
"No…."
"M-Me first!"
Bark shoved the others aside and planted himself in front of her.
"Kyahahaha! What a sight! Spectacular!"
Ashton howled with laughter from afar, watching his half-sister's violation.
"Heh, heh! Th-This is Elenoa's nipple…!"
As his toad-like tongue neared her untouched nipple, inches from her breast—
Crash!
A high window shattered, and two figures dropped in from above.
"Wh-What the?!"
A man in a dark coat and a young girl landed on the floor. The men's eyes widened at the silver hair gleaming in the sunlight—contrasting his coat—and the piercing red gaze that made them shudder. As they wondered 'Who the hell is that guy?', Ashton—the only one who recognized him—stared in horror at the silver-haired man.
"Y-You!"
How could he forget? This man was the root of all his ruin, the one whose interference had started it all. Ashton glared with pure hatred. Meeting his gaze coolly, Eunhyeon assessed Elenoa's plight, his brow twitching faintly. He tried to mask it, but the flicker of agitation was clear.
"Lia, plan change."
"Requesting update details."
"Spare that bastard and that one."
He pointed squarely at Ashton, then at Bark.
"Wipe out the rest."
"Order accepted."